Pascal Amoyel

Winner of the 2005 Victoire de la Musique award in the “Instrumental Soloist of the Year” category, In 2010, Pascal Amoyel was awarded the Grand Prix du Disque in Warsaw by the prestigious Chopin Society for his complete recording of Chopin’s Nocturnes alongside Martha Argerich and Nelson Freire—a recording described by Classica magazine as “a miracle we no longer dared to hope for, which leaves us speechless with its sheer beauty.” His interpretation of Liszt’s “Funeral March” has also been hailed as one of the definitive recordings, and his recording of Liszt’s “Poetic and Religious Harmonies” was selected by the Arte network as one of the five best recordings of 2007.

At age 10, when he began his piano studies at the École Normale de Musique de Paris (in Marc André’s class), he was quickly noticed by Georges Cziffra, whom he studied under in both France and Hungary. At age 17, after earning a scientific baccalaureate, he decided to devote himself entirely to music. Alongside his studies, he performed improvisational sets in the cabarets of Montmartre. He earned a Bachelor of Music degree from the École Normale de Paris, First Prizes in Piano and Chamber Music at the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique de Paris (studying under Jacques Rouvier and Pascal Devoyon), became a laureate of the Menuhin and Cziffra Foundations, and went on to win First Prize at the Paris International Competition for Young Pianists. He also received guidance from Daniel Blumenthal, Aldo Ciccolini, Lazar Berman, Maria Curcio, Véra Gornostaeva, Dominique Merlet, Dériré N’Kaoua, Jacqueline Landowski, and Lev Naoumov.

This marked the beginning of an international career that led him to perform on the world’s greatest stages: the Berlin Philharmonie, the Muziekgebouw in Amsterdam, the Palais des Beaux-Arts in Brussels, the Cité de la Musique and Salle Pleyel in Paris, the United States, Canada, Russia, China, Korea… and festivals such as La Roque d’Anthéron, Folles Journées in Nantes, the Tokyo Festival, La Chaise-Dieu, and La Grange de Meslay…

His recordings, either solo or with cellist Emmanuelle Bertrand, have earned the highest accolades: Gramophone Award, Cannes Classical Awards, Télérama’s “ffff,” Diapason d’Or of the Year, “Choc” from *Le Monde de la Musique*, Classica’s “10,” and the German Critics’ Annual Grand Prix…

As a composer, Pascal Amoyel is a laureate of the Banque Populaire Corporate Foundation. He is notably the author of the cycle *Job, or God in the Storm* and *Letter to the Beloved on the Subject of Death* (based on poems by Jean-Pierre Siméon).

July 2024